Seeing the sights,

Active Member

I have eyes that are getting weaker and weaker and I am now having a problem bringing the front sight into focus. I am near sighted, so if I take off my glasses I can see the sight no problem, but can not see anything at a distance. If I keep my glasses on I can see the target but not the sights. I also have an Astigmatism so I see double without the glasses.

I have been told that some shooters are having some success setting up their shooting glasses so the sighting eye has a correction that sees up close and the other eye is corrected for distance.

Any one tried that?

Anyone know an optometrist near Monroe, WA, near for me is within an hour drive or so, that is shooter friendly and would know how to set me up for that?

Active Member

I have the same problem as you. I can see the front sight just fine without glasses, but I might as well be shooting at a blank wall.

My solution was to have my doctor write a prescription for shooting glasses during my last exam. The prescription is for 30 inches in my dominate eye and normal for the other. I got a pair of large, cheap glasses from Sam's Club (Costco, Fred Myer, etc.).

I then got a adjustable peep iris for my shooting eye (Merit Corporation). The iris comes with an attachment for your classes. By using the iris it will put both the target and the front sight in focus. If you email me at enjr4@comcast.net I will send you info on how I modified it to clip onto the glasses.
Ed

Active Member

In November of TaylorMade R9 460 Driver, The PGA of America bestowed honorary membership on John Shippen, Bill Spiller and Ted Rhodes, three great trailblazers whose efforts ultimately led to the opening of professional golf up to all players. Boxing great Joe Louis received honorary membership at the same time. Ishiner

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Is it just me or is the forum getting all the weirdos out today, on my gun for sale thread some guy tried to convince me to sell him my gun for more than I was asking at confessed he did not have a DL and the stores were refusing to sell him any guns so he was hoping I would.....

Back on topic, I think I will try the two different prescriptions and see how that goes....I guess if I can get the glasses for about $100, that is only a few hundred rounds of ammo, and right now I am shooting and suffering so it could be well worth it....

Active Member

Don't know if your willing to try it or not.... bit I get my prescription glasses from this site. All you need is your rx from your eye doctor.... and the glasses show up in about 10 days. Ive ordered several pair from there and have been very happy with all of them. And you can't beat the price. WWW.zennioptical.com. I highly recommend them!

Is it just me or is the forum getting all the weirdos out today, on my gun for sale thread some guy tried to convince me to sell him my gun for more than I was asking at confessed he did not have a DL and the stores were refusing to sell him any guns so he was hoping I would.....

Back on topic, I think I will try the two different prescriptions and see how that goes....I guess if I can get the glasses for about $100, that is only a few hundred rounds of ammo, and right now I am shooting and suffering so it could be well worth it....

Active Member

You can buy stick-on magnifier lenses. Temporarily put one on the upper portion of your shooting glasses and all you have to do is tilt your head forward and things come into focus. Google; "stick on lenses."

OR.....

XS Sights, 24/7, big dot sights. I put a set of these on my primary carry pistol. Works great. Fast acquisition of front sight. These are combat sights, not target sights.

Well-Known Member

As "middle age" has been well upon me for some time, I upgrade my prescription every few years, which tends to bring things resonably back into focus. It has taken some adjusting, mostly in the neck, to accomodate the dreaded bifocals. Yuck.

We all have our favorite gear so we can shoot our best and enjoy it the most. But I make a point of shooting without my custom stuff too. As a right hander with a much stronger left eye (cross-dominant they call it), I've tried a number of techniques based on the sometimes conflicting advice of various shooting pros. Not knowing exactly how bad my eyes might get someday, I've learned to use either eye for different weapons, situations and lighting conditions.

Sure, it's blurry mess in some scenarios, but that's what practice is for. Tactical familiarity on a really basic level, just like learning to shoot weak hand or operate any wep one-handed. Then if I'm ever forced to switch eyes for any reason, its not a totally brand new experience when I do. In an emergency HD situation, I can still function without glasses if I have to. (At least use shop goggles if you're doing any uncorrected point and shoot drills.) Guess that'll all change when I can no longer differentiate between friend or foe. But for now, I try to keep mother nature's cruel march from rolling into a full gallop.

Hope it never happens, but if I ever need a gun, I'm training to be at least fundamentally prepared to use it, whether I have the right gear handy or not.

Well-Known Member

I recently at the age of 50 got contacts. My eyesite was bad up close and far away but somewhat ok at 10' out to 30'. I was having the same problem the OP was having while shooting The doc who isa shooter, suggested I try contacts set up for Monovision which has my left eye set up to see from 0 to 3' and the right eye from 2' on out. Sounds weird, but your brain adjusts after about 3 weeks and I love it now. I dont have any problems seeing the sites or targets as the dominate eye is set up to work for shooting. They can adjust my focal lengths for each eye with a different prescription and gave me different samples to try for shooting but my daily prescription works with no problems at all.

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